Best Places to ski out west sans transportation

[Phillycore]

I'm looking for some of the best places to take a ski trip to and save coin as well...
Basically where are some of the best places to travel to where all the following apply..

You don't need a car,
You can travel between hotel, shops, food, by walking
You can catch a conveinant free or low cost shuttle between lodging and the slopes
You can get affordable transfers from airport to hotel (roundtrip)

Out of the places I've been....

Definitely apply to this...

Jackson - close to airport, great town walking distance from plenty of hotels, inns, shuttle to slopes is also close, great terrain as well

Breckenridge - Gondola from town to slopes, can transfer from denver to breck pretty resonable, town has a lot of options for food, shops, etc..

Applies to some....

Vail - Everything you would need is right there, but you might need to sell off your first born to do it... If you could afford to stay in Vail you can afford the car to get you there..


Does not apply to this...
Keystone - No easy town access
Grand Targhee -

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Jackson Hole!!!!!!!!..also Whistle/Blackcomb and Crested Butte

 

[marcski]

Any of the Utah ski areas. There is bus service up both canyons. Park city has 3 ski areas also I believe with shuttle service between. All areas about 45 mins from SLC Intern'l airport.

 

[Philpug]

Steamboat. Great shuttle system, even better trees.

 

[skibum9995]

Steamboat. Great shuttle system, even better trees.

+1. I had no trouble getting to/from the airport and getting anywhere in town and to the slopes was a breeze on the free shuttle.

 

[Dr Skimeister]

Any of the Utah ski areas. There is bus service up both canyons. Park city has 3 ski areas also I believe with shuttle service between. All areas about 45 mins from SLC Intern'l airport.

+1 on this. No need for transport at all in Park City. Heck, there's even a lift right from Main Street in town to Park City Mountain Resort.

+1. I had no trouble getting to/from the airport and getting anywhere in town and to the slopes was a breeze on the free shuttle.

+2 on Steamboat. Easy transport from Hayden airport. Best town-to-mountain shuttle system I've experienced. I actually like staying in town better than at the mountain base.

 

[nelsapbm]

Ditto on Park City. We had a rental car when we there and rarely used it-was a waste of $$.
You can also stay in the valley and ski Alta/Snowbird using public transportation.

 

[snoseek]

Tahoe works damn good, you just have to take the bus from Reno for maybe 50$ round trip. South Lake Tahoe has some cheap rooms, Heavenly is right there. Other areas are reached by local bus.

I personally like staying in downtown SLC and taking the 7:45 (somewhere around that time) direct downtown to Little or big cottonwood. It's pretty cool to ski pow all day and hang out with normal people at normal bars, restaurants with normal prices at night. I usually eat breakfast on the 45-1 hour bus and drink a cocktail on the way back to town.

 

[deadheadskier]

Breck

 

[Geoff]

I think Aspen wins hands down. The airport is right there. The bus service connecting the center of town & Ajax to Snowmass and Highlands is very well run. Unfortunately, lodging and lift tickets aren't exactly value priced.

Steamboat works well. The van service between Steamboat and Hayden is price gouging but the bus loops work fine. There are more 'value priced' lodging options down the hill in town.

For a cheap trip, Salt Lake City wins. You can stay inexpensively on the bus loop in Midvale or Sandy (or downtown if you can get a good rate). Lift tickets are cheaper than in Colorado and you can buy them at a discount in the ski shops. There's no resort village but you're not paying resort village prices.

 

[Phillycore]

FWIW.... for steamboat you can do that from Denver as well... There is a shuttle service to-from Steamboat...but it is a 4-4.5 hr drive which would suck... but the cost of the shuttle from Denver might be less than the flight into hayden.

 

[JerseyJoey]

Jackson Hole

 

[prisnah]

Pretty much what everyone else has mentioned. Winter Park would be a good fit as well.

 

[Razor]

Ditto Utah, but an often overlooked spot is Ogden. We stayed there at the Marriott downtown last year on a ski special for two that included breakfast, lift tickets, bus to Snowbasin or Powder Mountain, even two new pairs of good Scott goggles, for real short money. They said that essentially you got the room for nothing. Ogden had some good restaurants to boot.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Whistler has a great no car village and plenty to do right there.I forgot the name of the place we stayed at 8 years ago but I could go to the liquor store in my socks since it was located on the bottom floor!Now thats handy.

 

[Dr Skimeister]

Ditto Utah, but an often overlooked spot is Ogden. We stayed there at the Marriott downtown last year on a ski special for two that included breakfast, lift tickets, bus to Snowbasin or Powder Mountain, even two new pairs of good Scott goggles, for real short money. They said that essentially you got the room for nothing. Ogden had some good restaurants to boot.

Whistler has a great no car village and plenty to do right there.I forgot the name of the place we stayed at 8 years ago but I could go to the liquor store in my socks since it was located on the bottom floor!Now thats handy.

I'm curious on either of these....How'd you get from the airport (SLC or Vancouver) to the lodging?

 

[JerseyJoey]

I'm curious on either of these....How'd you get from the airport (SLC or Vancouver) to the lodging?

Utah Transit Authority runs buses from SLC to all parts of Salt Lake County and beyond. Not sure about Vancouver as Whistler is much further from the airport than the Salt Lake ski areas are from that airport.

 

[Dr Skimeister]

Utah Transit Authority runs buses from SLC to all parts of Salt Lake County and beyond. Not sure about Vancouver as Whistler is much further from the airport than the Salt Lake ski areas are from that airport.

I thought I remember Ogden being at least 45 min north of SLC.

 

[JerseyJoey]

I thought I remember Ogden being at least 45 min north of SLC.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about the SLC ski areas (Solitude, Brighton, Alta, Snowbird). My bad. Sorry.

BTW, I think Snowbasin (above Ogden) is one of the great hidden gems of the ski world. It is often overlooked because of the hype that the 4 SLC areas get. Snowbasin is a world class resort in every aspect of the word, and it's big, really big. It also has the nicest bathrooms of any ski area I've ever been at.

 

[mattchuck2]

Yeah, I was going to say Park City, Utah . . . We skied PCMR, Canyons and Deer Valley over 4 days, than hired a shuttle to take us to Alta/Snowbird for 3 more days.